THE 



AMERICAN NATURALIST 



Vol. XLVII July, 1918 No. 559 



D HTMXES HELD AS VITALISM 

 PROFESSOR H. S. JENNINGS 

 The Johns Hopkins University 



1. A well-known zoologist remarks that before certain 

 papers had elucidated vitalism, he had had a personal 

 meaning for the word, but after, he did not know at all 

 what vitalism means. 1 Are not many of us in this case? 

 And is not the remedy more papers on vitalism, such as 

 we have recently had from Lovejoy, Ritter, Glaser, "Wood- 

 ruff, MaeDougall and others — in order that we may 

 know what is in each other's minds? In the obscurity, 

 persons holding the same views are rallying to different 

 battle cries, while those with diverse views march in sup- 

 posed alliance. The following has arisen in the course of 

 an attempt by the writer to clear his own mind on the 

 matter, and particularly to discover for practical pur- 

 poses whether the principles underlying the work of the 

 biologist are essentially diverse from those of the rest 



The papers of Lovejoy 2 have been of the greatest value 

 in distinguishing and classifying the views commonly 

 held as vitalism, but there appear to be still certain im- 

 portant distinctions that need emphasis before the ob- 

 scurity is quite dissipated. 



'"V. L. K., " in Science, October 20, 1911, p. 520. 



1 Science, November 26, 1909; April 21, 1911; July 21, 1911; November 

 15, 1912. 



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